Friday, 29 May 2015

This watch is the DZ-1432 (or DZ1432 or DZ 1432) by Diesel. The Diesel brand is a well known name, mainly in connection with their clothing line, and especially their Denim products. In the late 2000s, they started to be noticed for their fashion watch designs, and I feel that they were one of the companies which started the most recent wave of fashion watch popularity. The Diesel brand is part of the Only The Brave holding company, and this logo is a prominent feature of the back plate of the watches.

This model is one of their large but simple watches. It's a analogue model with a Miyota quartz movement inside, and this gives it a 3 hand dial display. The dial is round and split horizontally between two colours (light and dark grey) with different numbering styles in the different halves. The top half has only even numbers towards the edge of the dial with dashes for minutes further towards the centre, but on the bottom half, the hour numbers are in the same ring as the minutes from the top half while there are only hour markers at the edge. Around the very edge of the dial there is also a minute marker track on an angled section. The case is dark grey stainless steel and has an industrial style square(ish) design with visible screws. The design is finished with a soft feeling white silicone or rubber strap with Diesel markings on the strap, buckle, and loop.

The watch back doesn't have much more than the logo, model number, and serial number, just giving the material (stainless steel), water resistance (5 bar), and the CE mark.

Reading online, the Amazon UK site said this first appeared there in 2011, so I'd guess it was released around this time, but it isn't for sale anymore. One other site quoted an rrp of £89, but I've seen it for sale for higher prices!

Thursday, 28 May 2015

Today's watch is the 3rd in my collection of Time Design watches. Looking back, I think that Time Design were the first of the 'mystery' watch brands in my collection, as I've known about the brand since early in my collecting days, but still know very little about them.

The Time Design brand has been around since at least the late 90s (if my memory serves me correctly), and produce metal cased watches in a similar style to Storm. In my previous posts I've been mistaken about the names of the watches as they are named after metals, which I'd thought was part of the material they were made from. The watches are identified by the Time Design logo which is a combination of T and D, but looks like a curly D.

This watch is called Zirconium and is an analogue quartz model. It has a 3 hand dial design in a metal case with a futuristic look. The dial has no bezel, with the glass and face going right to the edges of the watch, but the case does show at the top and bottom where it goes towards the strap connectors. The strap is a metal design with a long curved solid first section and the typical Y-shaped connections for the rest of the strap. The dial is light blue brushed metal with concentric light blue rings, and the hour markers are raised metal blobs. The brand logo is well represented on the watch, being found on the case, both ends of the strap, the strap connector, and the watch back, and the Time Design name is also found all over the watch too.

My guess for the age of the watch is that it comes from the early 00s (but it may well be earlier), and it is a pure guess as there is no real information on the watch to suggest an age.

Wednesday, 27 May 2015

Today is another from my collection of the Bulova watches made for Benetton. This brand is another one with many different face designs that I have to work out a name for each time.

The Benetton by Bulova range started around the late 80s or early 90s, and are a collection of watches with similar cases but with many different face designs. At least some of the watches came with the phrase "Time of the World" so I think this may have been the logos tag-line.

All of the Benetton by Bulova watches I've seen so far are quartz analogue watches, and this is no exception, and this watch has a 3 hand dial design. It has the same case shape as the rest of the range, but in an aluminium colour, and features the Benetton logo at the bottom.

For this particular model, the face design is hard to describe. It has a purple background with abstract shapes drawn on. The shapes are in pastel yellow, purple, blue, and green, and all have a black scribble pattern over them. The Benetton name is written down the centre of the watch from the 12 o'clock position to the 6 o'clock position (where the only number is on the face), and 'by Bulova' is written at the 3 o'clock position.

The back has the usual info, saying United Colors of Benetton, By Bulova, and Mod. Dep. in the middle and stating this has a stainless steel back and base metal bezel.

Tuesday, 26 May 2015

Just over 3 years ago I posted a watch by a brand called COGU, and today I'm blogging my second from this brand.

The COGU watch brand is a difficult one to research a definite story around. The brand is reportedly an Italian brand, but there is no Italian website that I've found, with the main online presence being on the watch sales sites Bodying and Rakuten. When I blogged the previous model, I also found a Japanese website where it appeared they had checked and the import office had no record of the company. The brand name is a shortened version of the founder's name Cosimo Gucci, who is a 4th generation Gucci (son of Roberto and born in Florence in 1956). According to a YouTube interview, the brand was started in 2004 to allow Cosimo to explore his unique take in design, and the company is French owned. The trademark however is owned by a Chinese name/company, Sun Xianbo of Hong Kong. Last time I posted the about the brand, I was sceptical about its Italian origin, and I still haven't found anything to reduce that scepticism.

The watch itself is another mechanical watch with an automatic movement. It is also a skeleton design with the mechanical movement being visible through the face and the back of the watch. Unusually, the movement is offset from the centre of the watch with the dial closer to the bottom of the case. Above the dial is the COGU name and logo, and the text 'Classic Automatic'. This model comes with a Chestnut coloured leather strap which is imprinted with the COGU name and logo on the back.

There is no model number to this watch, so I can't confirm the release date, but this model doesn't seem to be on the sales sites anymore.

Friday, 22 May 2015

Today's watch is one of those where there is no marked name or model number so I've had to make up a descriptive name for the blog post.

This particular design of watch reminds me of a Tie Fighter from Star Wars. It has a central section with the face as well as two vertical 'wings' on the sides.

The watch is by the Boy London brand. The Boy London watches seem to come in a couple of distinctive styles - one with an all metal design, and one which is more simple watches with two tone leather straps. This model. Is actually a little bit between the two, but closer to the metal watches. It has an unusual metal shaped case, and the leather strap has a metal attachment with Boy on that is similar to the links in many of the metal straps.

The watch part is a quartz analogue design. It is a 3 hand dial model, but with a seconds hand which is moulded with the Boy name. The face design has the totem style Eagle logo that Boy London often uses, and only has numbers for 2, 5, 8, and 11.

The back is one of the typical Boy London designs, showing the address of the Boy London original shop - 153 Kings Road. It also states that the original creator is Stephanie Raynor, which might imply that this was made by someone other than the original Boy London company. The back also says the copyright is MCMXCIV (1994) which is when the original Boy London brand was on hiatus. Other information on the back is that the watch has a Japanese movement and a stainless steel back.

Thursday, 21 May 2015

I've posted a few agnès b watches on the blog so far, but this one is a little different than all of the others.

The difference here is that this model is an agnès b LCD watch rather than the more common quartz analogue watches.

The agnès b brand is a French fashion brand started in 1973 by the designer Agnès Andrée Marguerite Troublé. The fashion brand is the main business, but there is also a film production company, and Agnès has also funded completion of various movies. The fashion brand started with womens clothing before moving to menswear in 1981. The watches started in 1989 and are made in collaboration with Seiko, with the watches still being produced at this time. The logo is the agnès b name in a script style font, but this also means it is confused by many to read 'agnis b' instead.

This model is based around the Seiko W205 module. It has a small inverse LCD display which shows 3 1/2 digits. The module is one of the typical simple digital modules, and has only time, date, and seconds displays.

The case is quite thick at the centre, where the LCD display is, and there is also the brand logo and 'paris' above and below the display. The case then slopes down towards the strap connection, and the strap is a stainless steel expanding bracelet design (part number E0D7AG-S) where the links rotate when expanding.

The full model number is W205-4480, and this model came out in 1997 or 2007. As I've featured this module before in two Cabane de Zucca watches which came from the mid/late 90s, I'd reckon this watch is also from the same time period.

Wednesday, 20 May 2015

Today's watch is my second Void watch after I blogged the V02 in March.

Void Watches was started in 2008 by David Ericsson, a Swedish designer who started the brand originally as a side project.

The Void Sond (or Sønd as it looks on the case) is a very simple watch in how it's constructed. The case is one moulded piece of nylon with the display module mounted into it. The nylon fabric strap loops through the case itself with no need for additional parts such as spring bars, meaning that there are very few pieces to the watch (the case, module, battery cover, strap, and two silicone loops to hold the loose end of the strap). The website states that each part can be made in any of 8 colours, so there are a lot of combinations available to them. This particular colour variation is called the Sond NYG and is still on sale for $95.

The time telling is done on the rectangular inverse LCD display on the lower part of the front of the case. The display is for 5 1/2 digits (as the first digit of the hours can only show a 1). The module has an el-backlight, but then that is it, with no other functions!

The name of the watch means either 'That which is sent', or is a type of balloon used for measuring atmospheric conditions in the upper atmosphere.

Tuesday, 19 May 2015

In April 2013, I blogged about a vintage Alba watch with an analogue dial and an LCD in the glass. One of the conclusions of the blog post was that it was quite an uncommon model.

This watch shares the same module as that watch, the Y950, but this time it is a Disney version.

The Y950 watches came out in the early 90s and was one of the designs which seem to have been reasonably high tech and expensive for the time. The Y950 has a 3 hand dial which uses a crown for setting purposes. The glass has an LCD display built in with various display options. At the top and bottom of the LCD are two lines of digits, the top one able to show letters too. By default, these show day and date at the top and time at the bottom, but are also used by the alarm and stopwatch modes. In the centre of the display you can normally bring up a full month-view calendar with this module, however in this watch, the calendar has been replaced with an LCD picture of Mickey & Minnie.

This particular version is done as part of the collaboration between the Seiko brand Alba and Disney which has been going on maybe since the Alba brand was established. The watch face features a picture of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and above the face are the words 'Mickey & Minnie'.

This watch was made in 1983 (same as the previously blogged model) and has a full model number of Y950-5030.

Monday, 18 May 2015

One of the best things about collecting obscure fashion watches is that they have many different weird and wonderful designs.

Today's watch is another by the mystery Deep brand. The brand seems relatively new, but they have produced a large range of watches, many with normal looking designs, but plenty with something unusual about them. The brand itself is hard to research, but they seem to mainly be made in China, and share designs with other fashion watches.

Based on the model number, this may be one of the earlier Deep watches. It is called the DT-012 and is a quartz analogue model. The unusual thing for the watch is the layout of the face. The centre for the hands is offset to the right of the watch, while the numbers are surrounding a circle offset to the left. This simple misalignment gives the watch an unusual feel, and has quite an effect on the ease of reading if you're not concentrating.

There is also a date marker in place of the number 4, and a rather unusual day marker. For the days, the names are written out in full around a small window to the left and slightly above centre. In the window is an arrow which points to the correct day, and clicks round to the next day along with the date -the arrow doesn't rotate though, but is on a disc with one arrow for each day and only one at a time can be seen.

I don't know when the watch was released, but it is likely late 2000s, or early 2010s. The brand is a low cost one, so the rrp was probably below ¥4,000.

Tuesday, 12 May 2015

Today's watch is one of my old Swatch watches, but this time with an unusual way of telling the time.

This Swatch is called Ellypting and is one of the Swatch Originals models. It is a standard looking 3 hand design, but there are more numbers on the dial than you'd expect. The reason for this is that the watch has a 24 hr movement, and the hour hand only goes round once per day. The Ellypting is one of the first two 24 hr movement Swatch watches which were released in 1993, and it seems that there has only been 7 different designs released in total (the last in 1999).

It is one of the designs called Standard Gents, but actually seems to have been aimed at men and women. This means it has the standard plastic case, and this one has a leather strap (which is said to have an ostrich print). The face design has an ellipse in the middle with the different phases of the moon shown on the ellipse. There are numbers on the dial for every hour, but the odd numbers are much smaller.

It was released as part of the Fall Winter 1993 collection, having been designed in 1992. The model number is GB152.

Thursday, 7 May 2015

It seems that the Internet is recognising that I collect a lot of mystery Japanese watch brands. Today's watch is another by Module, and my blog makes up a large proportion of the web hits when I keep searching.

The Module brand is made by a company called Poll Position Ltd Co. From the limited information I've found online, they may be an Osaka based manufacturing company, but also distributors of the Lip watch brand in Japan. They also have a Japanese auction profile selling these watches, but there doesn't seem to be a specific web site for the brand. The brand logo is the name MODULE, but with the O being a hexagonal shape.

This model is a different design to most of their watches as it is an LCD design rather than the more common quartz analogue watches. The LCD design is an inverse LCD, in what looks like a dot matrix array layout. As this is only used for showing digits, I can't be sure it is a true dot matrix or whether it is just split into square pixels for the digits only. The design of the digits is such that they have a 3D effect because although the digits are 2 pixels thick, it looks like they are 2 sets of 1 pixel thick numbers offset by 1 pixel to the right and down. The time display is a normal basic arrangement having just time, date, and seconds. The back of the watch just confirms the make (with the logo) and the Poll Position Ltd Co company, and the stainless steel construction, and there is also a 'Made in China' sticker attached.

The watch case is a large square design with the whole dace covered by the glass. The front of the watch extends wider than the main body making it look slimmer on your wrist than it really is. The strap is a metal chainmail style with a buckle, and this fastens directly into the main part of the case.

I bought this model brand new for a discounted ¥1000 (but it has an rrp closer to ¥2000) so I think it is a very recent release.

Wednesday, 6 May 2015

I've blogged a few watches by this designer before, but this one is a little different style to the others.

The watch is by the flamboyant fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier. Gaultier is known for his outrageous clothing designs (for example Madonna's famous cone bra) as well as perfumes and aftershaves, but he has also been designing watches (at least) since the late 90s.

I've been blogging a range called JPG (or J.P.G) before, which was a set of watches made by Citizen in the late 90s. This watch is also made by Citizen, but not part of the JPG range. Instead, this watch is marked with the Jean Paul Gaultier name/logo.

From what I've found, this model is called (or normally referred to as) the UFO, and it does have the feel/design that you'd expect for a 50s style idea of a UFO. The case is large round brushed steel with a slightly domed shape. In the centre is a round domed glass where the time is shown. The watch is an analogue design with a 3 hand dial. Inside is a Citizen 6031 quartz movement. In a link to yesterday's watch, the hour markers here are also made from the letters of a name with Gaultier used for most of the markers, but dots for the 3, 6, 9, and 12 o'clock markers.

Looking online for the watch, I only seemed to find Japanese links for this model (especially when calling it the UFO), so it may have been a Japan only release. I think the watch may be newer than the JPG range, which would suggest a 2005 manufacture (based on the serial number), but it could have been 1995. Some sites I found had suggested an rrp of just under ¥20,000 but I can't completely confirm this.

Tuesday, 5 May 2015

Today's watch is a promotional special edition watch for a famous American singer - Mariah Carey. She's been in the news recently as tomorrow is the start of her residency in the Colosseum in Las Vegas, so I thought it was about time to blog this watch.

Mariah Carey is a singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress who broke into the public consciousness in 1990 with the release of her debut album. This watch is from 1995 and so coincides with the release of her album Daydream and a single One Sweet Day (with Boys II Men) which holds the record for the longest run at number one on the Billboard Top 100 in America (16 weeks).

The watch is a stylized 3 hand dial design in a round case. The hands are in different styles, with the hour hand being a zigzag shape, the minute hand is curved, and the second hand is straight but gold. The face is white and features a raised off-white monogram MC across the dial. The hour markers are made up from the letters in the name Mariah Carey, and as there are only 11, there is a black dot for the 12 o'clock marker.

The back reveals that this watch was made in Besançon, which is known as the watch capital of France. The location has been mentioned a few times on the blog already, as that is where the Azeka watches were made, and was the birthplace of the Lip brand. No manufacturer is mentioned on the watch, so I can't tell whether this is by one of those manufacturers, or another based in the same city.

The back also reveals the normal information around materials (base metal with a stainless steel back), and 3atm water resistance. The design is completed with a brown leather strap, but as this isn't marked, I can't guarantee it is not a replacement.

Monday, 4 May 2015

I've got a lot of Boy London watches in my collection and I'm gradually finding out a little more as I check out each one.

Today's Boy London watch is from a line of watches they released called B for Boy. In January I'd thought that this was a separate line, but as the back of this watch says B for Boy by Boy London, then I think I can confirm it. Both of the watches in this line that I've blogged have had smaller cases, and the strap here is very short (only just fitting my wrist), which suggests that these watches were maybe a line for children. I'd hoped that knowing this was a separate line would help get a more specific search, but instead I get a couple which have been for sale and most of the hits point back to my blog...

The watch is a 3 hand dial design in a round case. The bezel is quite wide and has the B for Boy name pressed into it along with symbols of a sun, moon, crown, and stars as hour markers, and the number 9 is the only numerical hour marker. The face is decorated with a sketched wheel and the word Boy, and has small text saying Japan Movt (which most of the time with Boy London means Miyota, but I'll need to open the back again to confirm it). The back has the description mentioned above, as well as a sketched version of the Boy London person symbol.

The strap has hints of the usual Boy London design, but with a few differences. It is made of black leather (single colour) with a stud/button, which in this case says Boy London and has a Union Jack in the middle. The buckle is the usual moulded Boy design too.
Timing is one of the things I'm most confused about with the Boy London watches. The brand has been around since the 70s, but most of the watches seem to have appeared in the 90s while the brand was taking a break. My guess is that this is one of the styles which started in the mid 90s, but as it is for a sub line, I'd guess that it was a little later in time, so maybe early 00s.

About Me

I'm an eccentric watch collector living in Norway. I started this blog so that I could share my (slightly excessive) collection as I wore them. I generally collect anything interesting and unusual, but specialise in Citizen Independent 1481010, and Tokima Robot watches
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